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When I was 20 I had a similar situation (this was in the early 90's). My car would just die while driving down the road. I took it in and they checked it out. They told me the timing chain was slipping and needed to be replaced. They quoted me $450 for the work and I had them do it. What was supposed to be a 2 or 3 day job at the most turned into a 3 week job. They kept calling me and telling me they found this and they found that and had to fix it. I had to have it done because I needed the car and I had to rent a car this entire time which added to the cost.
In the end my bill came up to about $1600. I drained my account and borrowed some from a friend and got the car back. Two days later it did the same exact thing it did before and died while going down the road. I took it to another garage and they told me it was my distributor cap. It had a crack and when it heated up it would expand and cause the car to misfire. All that other stuff was likely not needed. They charged me $50 to fix it and the problem was solved.
A friend of mine's dad was a lawyer at the time. When I told him what happened he was pissed and went after the other garage. They eventually settled with us and gave me $1000 of my money back.
I learned my lesson then. If possible get two opinions and get the price in writing.
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